Tikki Tooki is the trickster serpent god. He has a particular soft spot for gold, accepting it as tribute and granting it to faithful followers. This makes him quite versatile both for purist runs (where gold is in short supply) and with heavy preparations (where you often have more than you can spend). He can also be of help to those seeking to fuel items which comsume gold for activationg their abilities, such as Crystal Ball or Alchemist Scroll.

Tikki Tooki is uncovered in the south in a small subdungeon where you must defeat a form-changing imp without getting hit by it in return several times.

Contents

Skill Required

Depends on how much you want to rely on him. Also depends on when in the course of the run you begin worshiping him or convert into his religion. Early worship can require planning before a run, as can heavy dedication. He is relatively easy to gain piety with, but his few restrictions will severely alter your gameplay, and punish some strategies. He promotes top notch play and rewards it, but there is a chance of locking yourself into a downward spiral if you aren't careful. His preparation penalty can be really difficult to get around, and is widely considered to be the most taxing one.

Likes and Dislikes

TT gives piety for killing monsters that are lower level than yourself (+5 piety). He awards successful dodges (+3 piety) and use of the WHEYTWUT and WONNAFYT glyphs (+1 Piety). He also awards you +1 piety every time you poison a monster for the first time. You can also gain piety from him by using his "Tribute" boon which gives you +10 piety for 15 gold.

A very easy way to gain some piety with TT is to attack plants if you take his Dodge boon. While plants hit for 0 damage, their attack can still be dodged, and they all die in one hit. This makes joining him in plant filled maps very beneficial, and it makes converting into his religion after you've used Earthmoter to fill a level up with plants a strong move.

TT dislikes you getting hit by monsters too much, so you get -3 piety every time you get hit by a monster after the first. This dislike can be avoidied even if you join him early, by fighting higher level monsters with the help of damage dealing glyphs and first strike or slow.

He also dislikes using up death protections which he punishes with -10 piety. He won't punish he act of acquiring a death protection, but he will punish using it up. This can lead to a rare situation where you get hit by a monster for the second time and expend a death protection which causes you to lose 13 piety "at once". Since you can ussually predict when you will lose piety with him, this can mess up even an advanced player's calculations.

His preparation penalty makes him punish you with -3 piety every time you get hit, which means plant cleaning antics are out of the question in that case, and requires you to be even more careful about fighting though opponents.

Punishment/Desecration Penalty - If your piety drops below zero, or if you desecrate his altar, he will give every monster first strike and weakening blow, which is a severe punishment. Consdering that he actually has very few way to lose piety with, it is easier to avoid than it seems. If you are left with no exploration or lower level monsters, you can lock yourself into a downward spiral of piety loss which can be rally hard to get out of. In the situation where this would coust you a win, the solutions are his Tribute boon, desecration of another altar and the Pactmaker's Consensus boon.

Desecrating TT's altar should be avoided unless realy necessary, or in case you are a heavily focused spellcaster. Even then, it's prefferable not to do it until you are well into a bossfight and are certain that you won't be relying on first strike (or even physical attacks) to finish the boss off.

If you join the Glowing Guardian after picking up Tikki's Poison boon Glowing Guardian will punish you every time you attack something that isn't undead. The only way to get rid of the poison is to desecrate Tikki's altar.

Boons

Tribute - Lets you gain 10 piety for 15 gold, repeatedly. Investing too heavily is not recommended without forward planning, but an early worshiper will want to invest in at least one hit, and make up the loss of gold with grabbing an early level of Tikki's Edge and Dodge.

Tikki's Edge - For 25 piety you get +1XP on every monster kill and 10 gold. It can be taken repeatedly, and the piety cost incereases by 25 each time you do. In most situations only one hit is required, but it is an important boon because it lets you get more out of killing low level monsters, especially if paired with slow, or even slow and the Fighter's innate XP bonus.

Dodge - For 25 piety you get 10% dodge chance and 10 gold. Easy to pick up and the random dodges provide random piety gain. This allows you to gain piety in plant infested levels by dodging hits from plants with non-lethal and non-corrosive attacks. It also synergizes with his dodge based piety spike. For advanced users, it can greatly benefit heavy resistance stackers like the monk if they can grab it and safely convert out of the religion.

Poison - Gives a point of poison strike for every helping. The first one costs 15 gold, and each subsequent helping increases the piety cost by 10. More on this once it stabilizes, as it's been changed recently.

Reflexes - For 35 piety and a healing potion provides you with one Quicksilver and one Reflex potion. With proper setup the Quicksilver potion can get you a certain dodge on an attack (meaning you will be able to hit something and lose no health), and the Reflex potion lets you hit something twice in one attack. When used correctly together they allow for two simultaneous free hits on a monster, explained under "Piety Spike".

What's TT good for?

TT worship allows you to get a decent ammount of piety for killing defenseless monsters. Since popcorn cleaning provides both XP and various other benefits (mana if you have blue bead, curse removal if you have many stacks, bloodpools if you have sanguine), TT allows you to get even more out of it. Certain gods punish killing different types of monsters (Mysterea doesn't like you killing magic users, Dracul doesn't like killing undead, Earthmother doesn't like killing plants), getting use out of these monsters for a benefit and then converting to another deity, especially after picking the cheap utility boons, can really step up your game.

His potions based piety spike also provides the best generic solution to bosses with high damage but low hit points.

As a more advanced observation TT has been called "The singularity of resource management". He can turn gold directly into piety, and he can turn piety indirectly into XP (through Tiki's Edge). Since he gives gold for piety (through some of his boons) you can use the gold to buy items to convert for CP. If convert the items after converting to a deity who rewards piety for conversions, you can even get some of the piety you spent to get the gold back. If you spawn a lot of plants with Earthmother and then convert into TT, after you grab the Dodge boon you can clean plants up for +3 piety every time you dodge. Some of the most unlikely resource management optimizations are only possible with the most advanced forms of TT worship.

Strategy

In general, timing your TT worship depends on what you are looking for - early worship revolves around grabbing the cheap utility boons for gold and small benefits and acquiring 50 piety to convert into another religion. Later worship lets you harvest more piety from killing defenseless monsters with ease for TT specific benefits. Dedicated worship aimed at the piety spike can be a good default solution for several specific challenges.

Early Worship

Early worship of TT is tricky and requires forward planning. At lvl1 the piety for killing lower level monsters can't be acquired, and that is what he awards the most piety for. Using WHEYTWUT, WONNAFYT and APHEELSICK while you explore will give you one piety per use, and in case of the first two it will prepare lvl1 monsters to be harvested later for added benefits. Finding other altars and collecting the piety sparkles around them can also help, and investing some gold into a tribute will get you closer to your first boon. Bringing items which provide you enough XP to level up at least once in order to "start" at lvl2 is also an option (False Beard, Cracked Amulet of Yendor, Amulet of Yendor, even Balanced Dagger), or using the Goblin conversion bonus for an early level up will also let you harvest lower level monsters for piety. Playing a Fighter (easier to reach lvl2) or an Assassin (starts with APHEELSICK) is beneficial to this approach.

What you are looking for is a fast and eficcent level2, and the soonest possible purchase of the Tiki's Edge boon, which will provide 10 gold and +1 XP per monster killed. After you gain enough piety for the Dodge boon, you gain 10 more gold and allow yourself to gain +3 piety of random dodges. Where you take it from there is up to you to decide, but gaining 50 piety shouldn't be too hard, and with that you can convert to another God with up to 20 extra gold, two helpful small boons, 25 piety to spend with the other deity, and the free GETINDARE glyph TT provides if he is the first deity you join.

The approach works better if you join at lvl2, because you can get your first level without adhering to the principles of not being hit more than once that TT mandates.

If you are joining TT early you will be looking to kill specific monsters before you convert to someone else, such as getting rid of magic users if you plan on joining mysterea or getting rid of undead if you're planning to join Dracul.

Mid-run Worship

Provides you with an ease in early leveling, while leaving many low level monsters to be harvested later with more ease. The principles are the same, except there is much less pressure, and if you convert to his religion with extra piety or join him with extra gold picked up, you can grab Tikki's Edge more easily.

If joined at the right time, this can allow you to mop up all the low level monsters you have saved for a big boost in piety and experience, potentially letting you level up and heal both your health and mana without exploring. Whether you pick anything else up or swap into another god depends on the situation.

This is also a good move if you simply want to mop up popcorn for specific benefits, like getting rid of curse, getting gold from Gloves of Midas, or mana out of the blue bead.

Dedicated Worship

Tikki Tooki provides three options for dedicated worshipers:

1) Tikki's edge - if focused provides more XP for "cleaning popcorn", and helps spellcasters level-up while fighting the boss. This restores your health and mana, so you can unload more spells on the boss, as well as increasing your fireball damage directly and PISSORFF damage through physical damage increase. The extra gold can also help you buy cheap items for conversion, expensive items for use, potions from the alchemy shop or simply fuel a Crystal Ball. Just one level ot Tikki's Edge is enough, but some situations can make second helpings worthwhile.

It is effective with Fighters and Assassins, but also works with regular spellcasters, especially ones with large enough mana pools.

2) Poison - acquireing several levels of the Poison boon can help regen-fighting strategies greatly, and the first level can sometimes "pay for itself". The boon was recently reworked so the exact strategies still have to be determined.

It is effective with Monks and Gorgons if you can pull it off.

3) Reflexes - For 35 piety and 1 health potion, TT will provide you a set of potions. The quicksilver potion gives you dodge prediction and 50% temporary dodge chance. If you can "set up a dodge", that is, get hit by non-lethal attacks until your prediction says "DODGE", that means your next attack will cost you no health. You will also get 3 TT piety with that dodge. Before you apply your "free hit" on the boss, you drink the other potion, Reflex. It gives you double strike on your next attack, with the monster hit in between. Since you have secured a dodge with Quicksilver, the monster doesn't hit you, but you hit it twice!

It is effective with any physical damage dealer, particularly Rogues and Berserkers, but can be made to work with most classes provided enough practice. It is also the best way of dealing with certain bosses, namely Bleaty.

Piety Spike

Concentrated TT worship and channeling many resources into repeated uses of the Reflexes boon is TT's piety spike. It requires a moderate ammount of health potions, 35 piety per helping, and decent damage to work, but provides a string of free hits on the boss. That amount of concentrated damage is sometimes difficult to imagine until you try it, but it works spectacularly well against bosses with high health and low hit points like Aequitas, Bleaty and even Namtar.

It is doable with both early and late worship depending on the situation and expirience of the player. It is also advisable to save popcorn with first strike (Goblins, Gorgons), to help setting up dodges with the Quicksilver potion. Hits you take move the dodge prediction counter, and monsters who are lower level than you generaly can't hit you unless they have first strike.

Stuff that makes it work better are damage items, the Dodge boon and Rogue's Dodging, and knockback. If you have a knockback attack, you will knock the enemy back twice when using a reflex potion, causing extra damage. Halflings have a distinct advantage in being able to convert for extra healing potions, because the number of potion sets that can be acquired is limited by the total amount of healing potions at your disposal. Subdungeons which provide healing potions can also help in this regard.

Fuel Health potions, Tikki Tooki piety, popcorn monsters with first strike. Gold to a degree, if you mean to use Tribute to gain more piety with TT.

Synergy Big damage

Lets you ignore Your health in general, and your spellcasting except as supplemental source of damage.

Pro Tip If you want to plan ahead, avoid slowing popcorn with first strike. You will need their weak hits to set up confirmed dodges.

Pro Tip II The approach meshes well with Death Protections, which TT severly punishes. If you wan't to offset this you can either start a boss fight by using up your death protections first, and then join TT, mop up popcorn for piety and tribute for more, or you can desecrate other altars for piety and indulgences. If you intend on killing a boss without getting hit at all (dodges from the potions, death protections, first strike), you can safely desecrate any altar which doesn't affect you damage. Binlor, Earthmother, and Dracul in particular, and very advanced users can even manage a GG desecration although it's not recommended. Mysterea is a borderline viable choice, and Taurog and JJ are to be desecrated only in desperate situations.

Tips and Tricks

1) If you want earn a little bit more gold from a run you have already won, and want to experiment with TT a bit, you can worship him or convert into his religion after you've already killed the boss or bosses. You can then pick up Tikki's Edge and Dodging for gold, and mop up the remaining lower level monsters and desecrate the remaining altars (except the Glowing Guardian's one) to buy more his of Tikki's Edge.

2) One little-known trick with Tikki Tooki is that plants can be farmed for piety. It's entirely possible to dodge a plant's "attack" against you, and Tikki Tooki rewards you with piety every time you dodge. This means a Tikki Tooki follower can build up large amounts of piety just by clearing plants (this is also possible with Jehora Jeheyu, but that deity doesn't offer a boon that enables you to dodge). As well, attacking plants will trigger the quicksilver potion, causing your dodge chance to rise. In this way, you can continue to attack plants until your next attack is predicted to be a dodge then attack the boss. On levels with large numbers of plants (Western Jungle, Southern Swamp, and Ick Swamp being the most common) this can make Tikki Tooki a very powerful deity, and also an exceptional choice to convert into after worshipping the Earthmother.

3) Since TT gives you piety every time you poison something, you can use APHEELSICK and Venom Blade to get some early piety with him.

4) Also, don't be afraid of one or two extra hits which would punish you if it would provide a large enough advantage.

Overall, Tikki Tooki is one of the best "last hour" deities, offering enormous amounts of piety for slaughtering defenseless monsters and superb boons which can improve your odds. His piety spike is also the go-to solution to several bosses and PQI scenarios for several game veterans.